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Tuzla is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina

. At the time of the 1991 census, it had 131,000 inhabitants. Taking the influx of refugees into account, the city is currently estimated to have 174,558 inhabitants. After Sarajevo

, and Banja Luka

, Tuzla is the third largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the seat of the Tuzla Canton

and Tuzla Municipality. The name "Tuzla" is derived from the Turkish word for salt, and refers to the extensive salt deposits found underneath the city.

Geography

Tuzla is located in the northeastern part of Bosnia, settled just underneath the Majevica mountain range, on the Jala river. The central zone lies in an east-west oriented plain, with residential areas in the north and south of the city located on the Ilinčica, Kicelj and Gradina hills. The climate is moderate continental.

History

First mentioned in 950 as a county under rule, the town was later referred to by as Soli. Soli means "salts" in the Bosnian and languages and the city's present name means "place of salt" in Turkish. However, there is enough archaeologic evidence to suggest that Tuzla was a rich Neolithic settlement, and hence inhabited continuously for more than 6,000 years which makes Tuzla one of the oldest European settlements with sustained living. An open-air museum at Solni Trg, opened in 2004, tells the story of salt production in Tuzla.

World War II

On October 2, 1943, Tuzla became the largest liberated town in Europe to the time. In December of 1944, the city was unsuccessfully attacked by Chetnik forces of Draža Mihailović along with the Serbian Assault Corps. After the war it developed into a major industrial and cultural centre during the communist period in former Yugoslavia

Bosnian War

Tuzla massacre memorial

In the 1990 elections the Reformists won control of the municipality being the only municipality in Bosnia where non-nationalists won. During the Bosnian war, 1992-1995 the town was the only municipality not governed by nationalist authorities, and was besieged by Serb nationalist forces. The town was not spared the atrocities of the Bosnian War. On May 25, 1995, an attack on Tuzla killed 71 people, mostly children and injured 200 persons in Tuzla massacre. The youngest who died in that massacre was only two years old.

Contemporary Tuzla

Statues of Meša Selimović and Ismet Mujezinović

Statue dedicated to the participants of the miners rebellion

The city has Europe's only salt lake as part of its central park; more than 100,000 people visit its shores every year. One of the most influential writers in the Balkans, Meša Selimović hails from Tuzla. In addition, Tuzla hosts the annual Meša Selimović book festival (in July), where an award for the best novel written in the languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia

, and Serbia and Montenegro is presented. The first professional theatre in Tuzla, Narodno Pozorište u Tuzli, was founded by the brothers Mihajlo and Živko Crnogorčević in 1944.

Tuzla is the seat of the Tuzla Canton

, which is a canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as of Tuzla Municipality, which is one of the 13 municipalities that together constitute the Tuzla Canton. Administratively, Tuzla is divided into 39 mjesne zajednice (local districts).

Apart from Tuzla, the municipality incorporates several other adjacent settlements, including the town of Gornja Tuzla (Upper Tuzla), as well as the villages of Husino, Par Selo, Simin Han, Obodnica, Kamenjaši, Plane, Šići, Slavinovići, and others.

The Mayor of Tuzla Municipality is Jasmin Imamović, a writer and lawyer born in 1957, of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was reelected to a second term in 2004.

The City council of Tuzla has 30 members, of the following parties:

Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDP) - 14 members
Party of Democratic Action (SDA) - 6 members
Bosnian Party (BOSS) - 4 members
Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina (SBiH) - 2 members
People's Party Work for Betterment (Narodna stranka Radom za boljitak) - 2 members
Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ) - 2 members.

The Chairwoman of the City Council, Nada Mladina, is a member of the SDP.

Extractions of the city's salt deposits, particularly in the 20th century, have caused sections of the city center to sink. Structures in the "sinking area" either collapsed or were demolished, and there are few structures in the city that predate the 20th century, despite the fact that the city was founded over 1000 years ago.

Tuzla has an international airport located at Dubrave (IATA code: TZL), and an effective and well developed public bus network. There are plans to introduce a trolleybus network in the city soon.

The airport was opened to civilian aircraft only recently. The airport had comprised a portion of "Eagle Base", an American military base that has been home to NATO troops serving in SFOR, Bosnia's stabilization force.

Several sports teams from Tuzla have participated in international competitions. Almost all of Tuzla's sports teams are named Sloboda, meaning freedom. The most popular sports in Tuzla include football (FK Sloboda); basketball (KK Sloboda), karate (KBS Tuzla-Sinalco) and many others. The women's basketball team Jedinstvo Aida were European club champions in the late eighties, with the most famous sportswoman from Tuzla in their midst - Razija Mujanović. The first and oldest sport in Tuzla is gymnastics.

Tuzla is home to the University of Tuzla

, with more than 10,000 students, and also the American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On September 1, 2007, 6980 couples kissed for 10 seconds in Tuzla, Bosnia erasing the previous Guinness World kissing Records of the Philippines

and Hungary

(for synchronised osculation in 2004 with 5327 Filipino couples, overtaken by Hungary in 2005 with 5875 couples; Filipinos came back in February this year with 6124 couples but the Hungarians responded in June with 6613 couples). The record now awaits official certification.

On September 26, 2008, Tuzla began offering free wireless internet access in the city center.